This invention relates to ice making apparatus to be used in a commercial setting, most particularly ice making apparatus of the auger-type, which apparatus produces flaked or chipped ice. Ice is formed by water freezing on the inner wall of a hollow cylindrical freezing chamber. A rotatable ice auger, sized to enable the scraping of ice off the inner surface of the freezing chamber, conveys the flaked ice toward the axial end of the freezing chamber whereby the flaked ice is compressed into a rigid mass of ice which is subsequently severed into discrete, generally uniform nuggets of ice.
As nuggets of ice are formed in the compression nozzle at the upper end of the auger-type ice making apparatus, water molecules that contain high levels of dissolved solids due to the natural extraction of impurities during the freezing process, tend to aggregate in the nuggets, as trapped pockets of water. These pockets of water will, over time, cause the nuggets to degrade from within, and ultimately the nugget structure fails. Ice nuggets with inferior structure are often difficult to automatically dispense from a container, because they tend to crumble under the force of agitation and dispensing mechanisms, especially as they age in a bin or storage hopper.
Additionally, commercial uses of ice nuggets tend to require the delivery of the nuggets to locations in commercial establishments that are increasingly remote from the situs of the ice making apparatus, as is increasingly the case in supermarkets, fast-food establishments, beverage lounges and other places where the locations where the ice nuggets are to be use are not convenient locations for the making of the ice. Thus, with the desire to deliver ice nuggets over increasingly long distances, it becomes increasingly important that the nuggets remain intact, and not separate into a plurality of components, releasing water as they do.
The present invention is directed to providing an ice making apparatus with a discharge nozzle that is increasingly effective in providing a high ratio of ice to water per volume of nugget.